Direction: I am producing a 5 map precursor campaign for my upcoming StarCraft 2 production, 'Celestial Reverie'. 'The Sweet Science' will take you to various points in the career of Issac Rangel, the primary protagonist in Celestial Reverie. During the start of Issac's career in the Reverie, he is mentored by Jack Anderson, a man whom you will learn is a source of inspiration for Issac. See key points in the early career of Issac and his mentor, which will include run-ins with two StarCraft canon characters. And most importantly, learn about 'The Sweet Science', which is perhaps the most important lesson bestowed upon the audience to assist them in sorting out the multi-layered conspiracy in 'Celestial Reverie'.

Each playable map will contain a Hard Mode, which can be triggered by completing certain in-game and in-character criteria within a certain amount of time. An example of this would be on the first map, where you can destroy a supply depot within the first minute of gameplay. Destroying the depot will enrage the local enemy, causing them to throw a lot more at you then you'd usually care to handle. Casual campaign goers can choose to play through without activating Hard Mode challenges, while grizzled veterans can test their mettle against these obstacles if they desire. Each hard mode challenge completed will unlock a code which can be used in the first mission of Celestial Reverie (for StarCraft II) for unique bonuses and/or items which will assist you in completing the hard mode challenges of that campaign.

The story takes place in various locations in the Koprulu sector and acknowledges a small amount of StarCraft lore relevant to the story. The time period will span a full 4 year time period in keeping with the original parameters of the Campaign Creations contest. The campaign will be fully voiced, and will feature music written by Joel Steudler for the Celestial Reverie series. No art modifications or any sort of modding beyond simple adjustments are planned.

WEEK 1 - 6/8 to 6/15 - Project planning and script writing consumed the majority of my time. After several dialogue revisions and creative consults with Joel Steudler, I am quite pleased with the final product. For a short campaign, the challenge was creating a story that people could easily get into (which was not easy given the complex nature of CR's storyline), a relevant story to the events of both StarCraft and Celestial Reverie, as well as introducing people to some of the personalities of Celestial Reverie. To that end, I believe I accomplished my goals.

WEEK 2 - 6/15 to 6/22 - What a busy week. Voice actors were selected for all but one role (a minor role). I was recording some voices but wasn't quite satisfied with the recording quality or acting quality of my efforts, so I'm definitely going to go back and give it another go. Much of the first map has been completed. The hard mode requires extreme diligence and planning to beat. You definitely won't be able to beat it your first time through. On the first phase of the hard mode encounter, I lost all my units within a matter of seconds the first few times I tried it. But once I perfected a strategy I didn't lose a single unit. I finished the second phase of the encounter, and just have the third and final phase, and then I'll wrap up the rest of the map. I didn't have many problems getting back into the editor. Much of my time has been spent playtesting to make sure the hard mode is not 'impossible mode'. The first map was always going to be the most intricate one in terms of triggering work, so I'm not too concerned about it taking longer than a week. Finished a custom mpq and custom exe. All it is missing are the voice overs for a couple of units. Surprisingly, works without fail in Vista x64 with the latest patch, so I have no doubt it'll run well in any environment, Mac excluded.

Mini-Update - Two screenshots attatched. crsweet01.jpg - just got finished with that map today. It's extremely fun and has some unique mechanics to it (no modding, just trigger mechanics). Don't know why I needed all those switches looking back in crsweet02.jpg, I only know that each one of them does something important. Probably my most complicated StarCraft map ever. Glad I didn't hit any limits there.

WEEK 3 - 6/22 to 6/29 - just about finished the first map. I'm not quite happy with the hard mode yet, or the regular mode. Depending on how you set up, it can be a bit too easy, so I'll likely be changing some things up. Second map is mostly done as well. Very fun map with a unique way to win. Both of these maps are heavily trigger reliant. Map development wise, I'm just about done. The third and fourth maps should both go by fairly quickly based on their complexity. The fifth map isn't really a map, so it's pretty much done as well more or less.

WEEK 4 - 6/29 to 7/06 - Wow, what can I say? Not a lot done this week. Although it may look like significant progress was made, I did complete a good portion of the triggering for map 3, though it remains untested. Its really weird for me to make triggers and not test them that same day. Just shows how busy my life has become suddenly. Ano onna is taking up most of my time now - something I certainly didn't calculate when I started this project. So glad I got all of the hard work out of the way. I'm not very worried though, I still have lots of time. I'm not worried about the map part at all, but I have a lot of work to do on the voices as well as final map testing and balancing and I want to give myself a lot of room for that.

WEEK 5 - 7/06 to 7/13 - Just about done with all the maps. I'm pretty satisfied with maps 2-5. Map 1 is the most extensive but it needs some work on play balancing. It's a bit more difficult since every single enemy and attack is triggered, but I'm sure I'll get it down so the challenge level is balanced. Now that the majority of the map work is done, I'm going to be tackling voices this week. It's a lot of work but I'm confident I can have it done well before the due date.

WEEK 6 - 7/13 to 7/20 - All the voices have been recorded. Finally satisfied with the recording quality, was able to get consistent results by moving some stuff around. I edited quite a few today, all the hard ones. Just have the transmissions for three main characters left, which should be pretty straight forward. Just a lot of work. I might release this week depending on where I'm at. After I'm done I still need to update the web site before I release, get the site ready to go. That's last on my list though. See? I have my priorities in order. I'll be working on this tomorrow morning for sure.

Very cool. Very cool you're participating (even if it reduces my chances to, well, zero hahaha!). I was curious about Celestial Reverie and you've been so secretive about it, so I'm glad you're introducing some of it here.

BadManners! wrote:Very cool. Very cool you're participating (even if it reduces my chances to, well, zero hahaha!). I was curious about Celestial Reverie and you've been so secretive about it, so I'm glad you're introducing some of it here.

Is Joel going to help you?

Good luck, man!

In terms of the script, Joel has helped me immensely in improving the character dialogue and cutting out a few of my annoying repetitive dialogue mistakes which I tend to make. We have already progressed to a point with the music that there is enough material there sufficient for this project. In terms of voice acting, I don't have plans for Joel yet, and if there are none, that will be the end as far as his contributions are concerned.

The dialogue mistakes were some things I overlooked. For example, in a single paragraph I'd use a word too much, like here'. "We have to get out of here. Here they are, so bring them over here." (Not the actual line, just a lazy example). Basic stuff like that, plus he pushed me to put more personality into certain characters who were lacking in their initial iteration. Mostly because I wrote this story in two days (compared to Celestial Reverie which I've been writing for about 2 years), one of the new characters was pretty flat. I'm sure he would of been passable for the audience, but Celestial Reverie is all about the personalities, so I really hate having characters who don't have any character.

Progress updated for the week on the original post. Very busy week even if it doesn't look like it. Comparing my progress to many others here, they definitely get stuff done faster. Although I'm definitely trying to compile a complete and entertaining experience. I don't have any excuses for failing here, time to show the best I have to offer for the original StarCraft.